


Bad Moon Rising

by soupcoups



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Gen, Mental Illness, Panic Attacks, homicidal intentions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:55:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7959592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soupcoups/pseuds/soupcoups
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Around this time, Mingyu, essentially lounging on the couch, decided starting a conversation with Seungkwan would be more entertaining than either the television or playing on his phone, began with “So… Zombies. Seungkwan-ah, what’s your take on this?”</p>
<p>“My take is that I don’t want to die like this.” Seungkwan answered snarkily, never really one for formalities, and especially not in a situation like this. “But, whatever, right? Keep on keepin on.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No more yesterdays

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm sorry.

Their training had never prepared them for this. Busy schedules kept them from thinking about anything much other than their next activity. Practicing, eating, sleeping were the only things that went through their minds. The apocalypse was far from their thoughts, and even from their dreams. Even the late night telenovelas, the only thing on when they returned from practice, and the midday dramas about zombies couldn’t force the idea up to their minds. Admittedly, when they were younger, and not involved in the idol life, it was among some of the things they dreamed about; but that was long, long ago. Back before eyebags and hairspray. Back before diets and studying in between practices. 

It happened suddenly. There were no warnings on the news before it happened. Not that they would have known; anyways; as previously mentioned, it was rare that they would get a day off, and even then it was unlikely that any of the members would spend that day in front of the television, and even less likely that they would be watching the news of all things. The first sign of nationwide panic occurred nearly in the dead of the night. The traffic stopped, streets overflowing with people trying to find a place to stay safe in the middle of what they only could assume was the next armageddon-the news had been awfully vague in their reports, despite nearly a month of segments devoted to the government’s next pet project-slaves that were neither alive, nor dead, but somewhere in the middle.

Meanwhile, the exhausted boys who had returned only hours earlier from dance practice slept like rocks. Even the more light of sleepers, Mingyu and Wonwoo, who normally would have kept the other members up with their giggling and antics, were silent in their bunks. So soundly asleep were they that not even one eye was opened when all thirteen cellphones began blaring evacuation warnings. In fact, it took Soonyoung waking up at around three in the morning to pee and nearly falling off his bed at the loud sounds coming from four rooms respectively. It took even longer for him to locate his own phone and realize the potential danger they were in, and it was around four in the morning, when he had gotten all of his stuff packed and ready to go, that he decided the other members had slept long enough. Grabbing two (thankfully clean) pots, half-asleep mind thinking this was a good idea, the dancer began banging them together loudly and yelling into each of the four rooms for the others to just wake up already. All the while, the evacuation warnings carried on-

“Danger- Virus- Epidemic- Evacuate Seoul immediately.”

“Danger- Virus causes cannibalistic tendencies.”

“Danger- Virus found in Busan. Evacuate immediately.” 

“Danger- Virus spreading at rapid rate, possible airborne illness.” 

 

Dozens of these such warnings outnumbered the thousands of twitter and other social media notifications, constantly appearing at the top of their notification list even through all of the spam. Most of the warnings were timestamped 23:30. It was 4:23. The boys had been in the midst of danger for almost five hours now. Even so, the group’s proclaimed leader, Seungcheol, took a few minutes after reading the notifications to realize the seriousness of the danger. It only took him one or two more to get dressed in anything that would fit, even if Jun and Soonyoung would probably yell at him for stealing their clothing. (It was so dark; he honestly wasn’t sure if it was theirs or his at this point). Finishing dressing, Seungcheol began yelling at the other members as Soonyoung stopped, telling them to get dressed, read their phones and stop the noise, and put all of their stuff when they were ready in the living room. They had definitely caught a break, though; most of their essentials were already packed up as a rule; so that they wouldn’t forget anything before flying to a different part of the country. 

Wonwoo was already on the edge of waking up, a light sleeper, but the combined loudness of Soonyoung, Seungcheol, and the alarms, made him jolt up. Quickly shaking Mingyu awake, Wonwoo got himself dressed and threw clothes at Mingyu. “Turn the freaking lights on!” He yelled out into the hallway, with no response but his whims being met. While he began packing, he noted that not only was the news going crazy about this danger, but also the several blogs he followed enough to have their notifications turned on. 

Meanwhile, Jeonghan was already fumbling through his blankets to find his phone. Minghao was being dragged off of his bed by Junhui, ever the quickest to wake up. Chan and Hansol, both yawning, neither having realized the severity of the situation they were unwillingly thrust into, dressed sluggishly before packing up their chargers and a few books. Jeonghan could see Joshua reading the evacuation notices, getting stuck staring at his boyfriend’s face as the other tapped on his phone and brought it up to his ear.

“Jisoo do you not hear the terrified screams coming from outside?! You need to pack up everything you own!!.” Jeonghan yelled, momentarily forgetting that silence would be key at the current time. He continued packing up, though; able to focus on more than being angry at his boyfriend.  
“I’m calling my mom, Jeonghan. I don’t want her to worry.”. He had an assuring and calm tone in his voice. Jisoo didn’t even pause to pack up, and it was just pissing Jeonghan off more and more each second. Jeonghan always woke up grumpy, but today it was as if that grumpiness was being exacerbated.

“How can you be calm in this situation? We have to hurry! Your mom will be fine, we have to pack, we have to leave!” Jeonghan practically screeched as Soonyoung leaned his head into the room, finger to his lips worriedly. Jeonghan just sighed, stuffed his phone in his pocket and started making his bed, the way he always did, just to give himself something to do that was neither destructive nor creative. 

“Please be patient with me, Jeonghan, I have to make sure she knows I’m okay, it’s already been four h-.” Joshua suddenly stopped as Seungcheol burst into the room in mostly Junhui’s clothes. Neither Josh nor Jeonghan had the heart to tell him that Jun would probably not be very happy about this. But, Jeonghan supposed, Junhui as well as their leader probably had way more important things to be focused on at this moment, and Junhui certainly wasn’t the type to hold a grudge for very long, especially not one this understandable.

“Jeonghan, Jisoo, I’m sure you’ve already heard the announcements, but as soon as you’re done packing up, drop all of your stuff off in the living room and grab your masks. Jeonghan, when you’re done with that, come to the kitchen to talk strategy, and Jisoo, stay in the living room and try to calm everyone down.” Seungcheol spoke quickly, reminiscent of his raps, so much so that neither Jeonghan nor Joshua could argue with him before he was gone. Jeonghan just glared at Jisoo, who made no moves to get up, and began packing for him as well.

Finally in possession of some free time, Seungcheol realized that of all the eleven other members he had seen getting ready, he hadn’t yet seen his boyfriend, Jihoon. He began hyperventilating, all of the stress hitting him like a brick wall. He was about to curl in on himself, feeling tears well up in his eyes, thinking ‘Is this what a panic attack is like?’, when Wonwoo, having finished packing up and dropping off his things in the living room, and on his way to the bathroom, hit him on the back. “You okay, hyung?”

Seungcheol swallowed his tears and willed his voice not to be as shaky as he felt it was. “Jihoon-”

However, before he could finish, Wonwoo was pushing him in the direction of the studio.  
“Stop panicking and think. He spent his birthday in the freaking studio, you stupid rat grandpa.”  
Seungcheol took a couple of deep breaths, smiled at the younger, and muttered, “Yeah, you’re right, you emo sloth.” And with that, he was off to the studio, with Wonwoo remembering his original goal of needing to pee.

Meanwhile, out of the eight members needing to finish packing, Junhui was definitely the most distracted; after getting Minghao out of bed his first idea was not to take care of himself, but instead to start making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, enlisting Soonyoung’s help in gathering up enough food to last thirteen stomachs for at least a few days until they could go grocery shopping-assuming the grocery stores were still open. Hope was always the most important thing, Junhui supposed.

In the living room, Seungkwan was organizing the bags in the nicest way possible that could be done by an eighteen year old in a hurry. Seokmin was mostly hurrying around, making sure that everyone was up and about (and skipping the room Jisoo, Jeonghan, and Jihoon shared, because he could hear the distressed yelling), pausing to yell at Chan and Hansol, who were still in their pajamas, and shake Minghao awake once more before he could nod off. Mingyu, yawning and rubbing his eyes still, scratched his stomach before practically throwing himself down onto the couch, still not very aware of the imminent danger. As he did that, Hansol, who had since finished packing, but had yet to put actual clothes on was staring out tinted windows worriedly down at the streets. Every once in a while, he would see someone outside, but usually they looked almost deathly ill. In a place like Busan especially, it was almost worrying that there was almost no sound of car engines revving. Wonwoo came up behind him, placing a calming hand on the younger’s shoulder. Around this time, Mingyu, essentially lounging on the couch, decided starting a conversation with Seungkwan would be more entertaining than either the television or playing on his phone, began with “So… Zombies. Seungkwan-ah, what’s your take on this?”

“My take is that I don’t want to die like this.” Seungkwan answered snarkily, never really one for formalities, and especially not in a situation like this. “But, whatever, right? Keep on keepin on.”

“Jisoo, I swear, if you don’t stop trying to call your mom and at least take your bag out to the living room I will kill you.” Jeonghan had stopped yelling- instead rubbing his face exasperatedly. 

“I’m sorry, Jeonghan, if you would just give me a minute-” The call went dead once more, a ‘This number is not available. Please try again.’ In his own ear cutting him off. Joshua sighed exasperatedly, picking up his bag and placing it gingerly in the living room despite himself. Jeonghan patted him on the back and headed to the kitchen to await their leader’s next orders.

Without hesitation, Seungcheol began to shake Jihoon awake. “You can sleep after we pack your stuff up, baby.” He reasoned with the still half-asleep boy, who only grunted in response despite his best efforts, before moving his head from the keyboard and onto the papers covered with page after page of lyrics. Seungcheol sighed, deciding it would probably be easier just to pack up for his boyfriend instead of forcing the younger (and smaller) boy who had probably only gotten three or four hours of sleep to make good decisions on what he would take into what several blogs were acclaiming as a “zombie apocalypse”. Seungcheol smirked to himself, having taken many of the “What weapon would you take into the zombie apocalypse” tests, as well as observed lots of “how long would your sign last in the zombie apocalypse?” posts. 

Jeonghan, deciding that it would be at least a solid ten minutes until the other 95’liners and the four 96’liners would even remember their leader’s orders, decided to take Hansol and Mingyu downstairs to see what the situation was like. What Hansol had seen from the window hadn’t been too promising, and Jeonghan wanted to make sure he wasn’t freaking out, at least not as much as his hyungs were. As they headed down the stairs, it was easy to fall into a rhythm- Mingyu making a shitty joke about Hansol and Gretel, Hansol punching him in the arm and telling him to sleep if he had enough free time to read American fairy tales, Jeonghan hitting them both on the head in a reminder to keep quiet, idiots. As they reached the final few steps, their hopes were dashed with the sound of glass breaking. A gruff voice barked out orders in such a thick Busan accent that the only thing Jeonghan could understand was “And then, torch the place.” He went slack-jawed for a moment, like a fish out of water, before his leadership skills kicked in as the second-oldest hyung and he told Hansol and Mingyu to tell Seungcheol, Jihoon, Soonyoung, and Wonwoo to tell everyone else to hurry up and get done and get ready to go, since Junhui was still in the kitchen.

Satisfied that everyone except Jihoon had gotten their things packed, and mostly were either heading toward the bathrooms or lounging in various seats in the living room, Seungkwan sighed contentedly. That is, until a nearly out-of-breath Hansol burst from the stairwell with Mingyu a few steps behind. “Soonyoung hyung! Wonwoo hyung! Jeonghan hyung says to go to the kitchen.” Hansol spoke first, and Mingyu not at all as he walked quickly to the room Jihoon shared with Joshua and Jeonghan. Soonyoung and Wonwoo simply nodded, getting up off the couch from where they had been lounging on Seokmin and Chan respectively.

Mingyu nearly bumped into Seungcheol and Jihoon with how quickly they were moving, Seungcheol having received a text from Jeonghan about the situation. “Seokmin, you’re in charge.” Seungcheol said, gesturing to the four boys still lounging, Seungkwan up and complaining about not being in charge already. “Keep them occupied.” He muttered to Seokmin as he came closer to the younger boy, patting him on the back before walking as quickly as one can with fifty three kilograms of dead weight on their back toward the kitchen. 

“If only we had guns.” Junhui is saying as Seungcheol and Jihoon walk in, rubbing his face with his hand as Wonwoo nodded. 

“We just have to make due with what we have. If this isn’t a prank, and it’s an actual zombie apocalypse like all the news reports are saying, we’re gonna be stuck like this for a while.” Wonwoo responded, and Seungcheol launched himself into the conversation immediately.

“Jeonghan said that there’re raiders, so we’re gonna need defense first and foremost. Wonwoo, get Minghao and go look for anything that can be used as a blunt weapon. Junhui, you grab Hansol and Chan and keep them occupied with packing up food. Soonyoung,” He paused, grabbing the bat in the corner of the room that the Pledis officials had given them “just in case”, handing it to Soonyoung before continuing his impromptu speech. “You go down and make sure those raiders don’t try anything before we’re ready. Jihoon, you get everyone who’s not doing anything ready to leave through the fire escape.” As soon as he finished, Jeonghan walked in, raising his eyebrows at the other boys leaving the kitchen already. 

“Got anything for me to do, captain?”

“Yeah, help me figure out the rest of our plan.” Seungcheol said, sighing and sitting down on the cold tile floor, Jeonghan following suit without hesitation.

After safely packing up all the food Junhui had previously piled in the hallway leading to the kitchen, Jun decided the best route of action would be to tell Hansol and Chan to go hand off the food backpacks and pay attention to Jihoon’s orders- he could see the shorter boy already yelling at Seungkwan and Mingyu to work faster in putting all of the luggage on the fire escape, despite Jihoon himself checking the blogs constantly to see if it was a prank or the real deal. So far, the real deal, according to the countless blogs, and even news reports said it was as terrifying as one would dream up. Moving to help them and subsequently exiting the hallway, Jun ran into Joshua, who paid him no mind but to press some buttons on his phone and hold it back up to his ear. As he did that, Junhui’s phone dinged with a notification from Soonyoung to the 95’line and 96’liners group chat;

[04:56] Soonyoung: Hurry up, think theyre almost done w the practice room n crap  
[04:56] CaptainCheol: alright. Head over 2 jihoon and get your stuff ready. Jun, u r in charge of transportation  
[04:57] Jihoon: is it ok if i kill one of these kids and blame it on the zombies because im about three seconds from doing that  
[04:58] CaptainCheol: jihoon baby just chill itll only be a few more minutes ok

Soon, true to Seungcheol’s words, the preparation was done; weapons passed out, bags distributed as fairly as they could be by someone who never had any desire to play fair, and without any violence all thirteen had backpacks strapped to their backs, some carrying small duffle bags, heading down the fire escape. Not a moment too soon, it seemed, because right as the last in the line, Soonyoung, climbed out the window, there were sounds of gunfire and glass breaking, yelling, and as Soonyoung jumped down on instinct he could have sworn that there was a fire already being started in the living room. Pledis was gonna kill Seungcheol. Seungcheol, who was staring at him expectantly. Oh, right. Soonyoung nodded, made some “we need to leave as quickly as possible” gestures, (at least, he hoped that’s what they looked like. Wonwoo often told him that his gestures were stupidly complicated). Seungcheol nodded, looking to Junhui expectantly, which Soonyoung recalled was because it was Jun’s turn to play leader. He just hoped at least one of them knew what they were doing.

By this time, Jihoon was completely awake. He was doing a pretty good job of controlling his face; Seungcheol observed, his hands were shaking and Seungcheol was sure at the drop of a hat the shorter would rather be on Seungcheol’s back than clutching the leader’s hand. “Junhui.” Seungcheol said seriously, hoping that Soonyoung and Wonwoo in the back would be able to contain the children, and praying that Jeonghan would be able to control his anger toward Jisoo long enough for them to get into the transportation Junhui had (hopefully) already planned out- it was possible- no, probable, that noise drew these zombies, though presumably none of them had seen one yet. Truth be told, Wonwoo was doing a wonderful job of maintaining the dongsaengs, and even an extraordinary job helping Soonyoung focus on the task at hand.

As Junhui took the lead, there was a resounding sound of success from near the back of the pack that made Minghao, who was clinging like his life depended on it to Jun, get the older Chinese boy’s attention. “He got ahold of his mom.” Minghao whispered, and Jun smiled, though when he glanced at Seungcheol, the other wasn’t doing the same. No, rather, his eyebrows were creased and he had a look in his eyes as if he was in pain, or rather, trying to make a difficult decision. It wasn’t until later that Junhui realized that Seungcheol was making that peculiar face because the call reminded him of the families scattered across the country-and, in Joshua’s case, the globe-but it would truly be a long time for this realization to captivate Jun’s mind and make him think about it in more depth. 

As they reached the street that they would have to cross to get to the parking garage that housed the vans that transported the boys, Joshua stopped. Jeonghan hit his shoulder; to no avail. When Josh put his mind to something, he was truly unstoppable. Especially when it came to his mother, and even more so when Jeonghan was the one trying to stop him. When Junhui turned back to look at Jisoo, Minghao hit his chest. “Let Jeonghan deal with it. They have stuff to talk about anyways.” Junhui nodded silently, though before he focused on the task at hand he noticed that Jisoo and Jeonghan had slowed so much that even Mingyu and Seokmin, the two most notorious for their ability to walk slowly and never to walk like a normal person, passed them, not giving the couple another glance.

Jeonghan was more than pissed. He was this close to just yelling at Joshua and getting all of his frustrations out. They were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and Josh wanted to call his mother? He was sure steam would come out of his ears any moment. In fact, so focused was he on not yelling at Jisoo, that he neglected to notice the figure shuffling toward his boyfriend and him.

“Yes, mother, are you okay?” Joshua began swinging his free arm back and forth, a habit that he had developed while they were preparing for their next comeback. “I’m fine, mother, okay? Stay safe, there’s been a lot happening in Korea-” 

He was interrupted by Jeonghan’s scream, and once again when a shadow loomed over him, too big to be Jeonghan’s, bigger than even Mingyu’s, and grabbed the arm that was swinging. Before Josh could even react, could even try to wrench his arm from what felt like an iron grip, the person brought his arm up painfully and sunk their teeth into it. 

Jeonghan was frozen to the spot, scream dying in his throat. It felt like all eleven other members were staring at him, but why weren’t they helping? Why weren’t they running to come save Joshua? He was being assaulted by an unknown stranger and no one was doing anything. As he thought that, though, Soonyoung charged toward them, getting his baseball bat ready before rounding Josh and hitting the zombie with it so hard that the head flew off. Sadly, Joshua’s hand was still in the mouth, so his shoulder was dislocated by the sudden movement.

So much for being quiet, Jihoon thought, sighing and detaching himself from Seungcheol. Seungcheol wasted no time in telling Junhui to continue, and with a nod to Jihoon appointed his smaller boyfriend as in charge of the incident that just occurred. Without hesitation, Jihoon strolled over to the shocked Jeonghan, grabbing Wonwoo on his way before waving at Seungcheol, who in turn nodded to Jun to keep going. And so they separated, and though it was only a street’s eerily empty space keeping them apart, in this quiet world, it felt like miles; Junhui and Minghao leading, Seungcheol dropping back to cover their flank, passing the nervous dongsaengs, most of whom looked on the edge of a breakdown. He nodded to Wonwoo, the other trying to hold everything together in the maknae line while simultaneously looking like he was about to freak out at the same time. “Jun, we need to get the vans quickly.” Seungcheol spoke with urgency, desperately trying not to worry too much about leaving his boyfriend behind. 

Junhui nodded. “It won’t take too long- they’re right over there.” He said, gesturing to the three conspicuous white vans that were generally used for the safe transport of all thirteen boys. Though, Junhui grimaced, maybe it would only be twelve from now on.

Meanwhile, Jihoon was making the same face, but for an entirely different reason as he listened to Josh and Jeonghan argue. 

“Jeonghan, I understand your concern, but I’m a liability now.” Though tears were streaming down Jisoo’s face, he spoke with a surprisingly level voice, probably thanks to all of the years of vocal training. 

His facial expression was mirrored on Jeonghan, only about ten times worse. It was as if Jeonghan had been hit by a bus. There was snot cascading from his nose, his eyebrows were all scrunched up, and his eyes were bloodshot and red. There was no doubt that this was the worst thing Jeonghan had experienced up to today. 

But the action that took the cake was when Joshua took the hand of Jeonghan’s that was holding the kitchen knife, and brought it up to his heart. “Please, Jeonghan, just..” Jisoo trailed off as Jeonghan dropped the knife completely.

“No, you know what? I’m not going to fucking stab you! What if there’s a cure? What if that’s not how you turn into a zombie?” Jeonghan spit at Josh, internally wishing he could hug his boyfriend.

“Guys, guys, guys. Chill. Josh, you know how it is in movies. At the very least, you can’t stay with us.” Jihoon sighed, honestly just still tired. It was all he could do not to yawn in Jisoo’s face.

“Yeah, I understand.” Joshua nodded, and very suddenly pulled Jeonghan into a tight hug, kissing his boyfriend’s cheek, laughing a little. “I guess you’re the tallest in the end.”

Jeonghan sobbed once more, pressing his lips to Jisoo’s cupid’s bow. “Don’t talk like that. We can still text. What if you don’t turn.”

Jisoo smiled, murmured “I guess we can. Facetime me when you get the chance, okay?” but before Jeonghan could say anything else, he pressed a chaste kiss to his boyfriend’s lips. “I’ll see you later, angel.” 

And with that, with much less difficulty than either Jihoon or Soonyoung had expected, Joshua hoisted his backpack back into its rightful place, picked up the small bag of food he had been carrying, and began to walk to the left- it wasn’t safe to go back to the dorms, so he supposed he should just find a safe place to stay until he was sure that he wouldn’t turn into a flesh-eating zombie, or until the inevitable happened. It was always good to have hope, though, he supposed.

Right on time, just as Jeonghan was about to run after Joshua (and it took the strength of both Soonyoung and Jihoon to keep him held back), a van pulled up with Seungcheol at the wheel. “Get in. Jeonghan kinda…” He trailed off, gesturing to the zombies that Soonyoung only now noticed. Apparently, his earlier hunch about zombies being attracted to noise; around ten were ambling toward the corner that now had blood splashed leisurely around it like a painting. 

[5:30] Wonwont: ok not to be a hater but where are we going hyung  
[5:31] jihoon: wonwoo arent you driving  
[5:32] Wonwont: shut up jihoon  
[5:33] jihoon: ….  
[5:34] Wonwont: ok hyungs i managed to wrestle wonwoo-hyungs phone from him its me seokmin but wonwoo hyung really wants an answer  
[5:34] jihoon: Seungcheol says were going to the mall to get more supplies  
[5:35] JoblessMoon: jun just said “i hope seungcheol-ah doesnt think i know where the mall is because if he does hes very wrong”- minghao  
[5:35] JoblessMoon: update: i wasnt supposed to tell you guys that- minghao  
[5:36] jihoon: seungcheol says just to follow him also he says tell jun to use hyung  
[5:36] AshKetchum: jihoon im in the car too and he didnt say to use hyung are u getting jealous? ;)

Meanwhile, in the maknae line chat:  
[5:36] vernon: hey guys check out this cat its playing the keyboard  
[5:36] chickennugget: holy crap :0 how did it learn to play  
[5:37] seungqueen: Guys. It’s obvious that there’s a human holding that cat up. But did u see this vid of a dog with human hands eating???  
[5:38] mingwow: OMG THATS SO COOL HOW DO U SAVE VIDEOS ON KAKAOTALK? LOL

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the mall, after having seen only a few hundred zombies on the way, and one or two survivors too occupied with shooting at the undead to see the three vans on a trek ten or so miles from their starting point. 

When they arrived at the front of the mall, it was eerily quiet, just as the streets had been. They waste no time in getting out, leaving Seokmin in charge of the maknae line; none of the older boys thought it would be right to subject the six of them to the potential horrors-Soonyoung still heavily shaken up by having to kill the man earlier. As an afterthought, Seungcheol pushed Jihoon into Seokmin as well, not ready to play with fate after they were already down one person. Jihoon’s glare was halfhearted, and he would get over it- it was better than being dead. As Seokmin began giving the maknae line orders, and forcing Jihoon to lie down, Seungcheol, Wonwoo, Soonyoung, Junhui and Jeonghan began planning out a strategy; working on the motto that you could never be too sure of your plan. 

Finally, after around ten minutes, they decided it was now or never, and walked through the wreckage that already was the entrance to the once popular, now deserted mall. If it weren’t as quiet as it was, no one daring to speak lest an undead horde find them by the sound, Junhui doubts he would have heard the nearly inaudible gulp of terror each of the other four made when Jeonghan stepped on some broken glass. Junhui made the mistake of looking at the floor; drying blood was sprayed almost comically on nearly every inch of the floor. He heard, rather than saw the other members looking down, all five with the same question on their minds; but where were the bodies? No one broke the silence, but Soonyoung jumped two feet in the air and Junhui cursed loudly as Wonwoo’s phone dinged, Wonwoo having forgotten to put it on silent. Seungcheol, ever the fearless, was the first to have to muffle the snickers coming from his mouth, and everyone else began to laugh quietly too, Jun with little huffs, Wonwoo’s a complete guffaw and Soonyoung’s warm chuckle, as Wonwoo read the text aloud. 

[6:01] mingwho: hyung, can u bring those neck pillow things if u can find them? Also, seokmin wants chicken nuggets and woozi hyung suggested blankets. Also vernon said he wants new earphones also chan wants a soda

With that, the tension was broken, and the boys continued the same way, but sans all of the tension in the air. First on their agenda was the department store, for blankets and pillows like Mingyu and Jihoon had suggested. As they headed toward pillows, blankets safely folded (Jeonghan insisted- no one tried to deny him) into the packs they had also gotten from the store, Junhui paused and with him everyone did. He grasped the knife in his hand so tight his knuckles began to turn white, before letting out a shaky breath and going into the children’s clothes section. None made a move to follow him, all too cowardly to even think about the importance of backup. It wasn’t a big deal either; Junhui emerged only minutes later, clothes only slightly spattered in blood. He was breathing hard, but no one said anything about it as Seungcheol let him hang back a little. “Alright. Where were we? Pillows? Alright. Pillows. And then weapons. And then food.” Seungcheol spoke quickly, reminiscent of his raps once more to Jeonghan. 

No one spoke the obvious. No one asked why there were so many clothes and why there was so much, well, stuff, still there. When each of them pictured a mall in the midst of an apocalypse, they all saw a place with clothes and various material goods scattered across the floor, clothes torn from the rackets, everything a mess. But here… It was almost like everyone had forgotten the mall existed. 

On occasion, Junhui or Jeonghan would leave, only to come back with slightly more blood-spattered clothes each time. Wonwoo, Soonyoung, and Seungcheol just pretended not to see it, which made packing up the pillows that much faster. Wonwoo just assumed they had some pretty deep-seated problems, and he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of those knives rather than the dead people, so he left the two of them be. When Seokmin took too long to respond to the text about weapons of choice, the five grew antsy and bypass weapons for grocery shopping. 

This time, however, while they were in the grocery store, Jeonghan and Junhui left much more often, and it got to the point where they ended up just staying on either side of whatever aisle the other three were grabbing things from. So, around the time when they were finished and Soonyoung had checked his phone clock, shopping took about twenty minutes where it should have taken ten, because Junhui had decided that just then was the correct time to release his stress. Stress from what, Soonyoung had no idea. But he digressed. 

Potential of either Jeonghan or Junhui getting bit be damned, Seungcheol was more concerned at the rate that the zombies were appearing. It made him anxious to check on Jihoon and the maknaes, so much so that he had already sent several texts to Seokmin about Jihoon’s wellbeing. “He’s fine, hyung. But I’m sure we would all be better if you guys returned.” Seokmin had told him about five minutes earlier when Seungcheol had finally given in and called the impromptu babysitter. As Seungcheol thought back to that and they headed toward the second floor, where the weapons shop was supposedly located, a shout from below startled him into almost dropping one of the bags he had been holding. Because he was standing on the nonfunctioning escalator, with so much luggage, it was difficult to look back, so he decided to just get to the top, get himself safe, before he set the numerous bags down and looked to see what the trouble was. Apparently, Jeonghan had been nearly surrounded. 

(SEVENTEEN group members chat, sans Joshua)  
[7:23] Wonwont: SEOKMIN GET THE CHILDRNE RESDY THERE SA HOARD  
[7:23] seokka: did u get weapons????  
[7:25] Wonwont: were on our way but we might need utoo gey drive in sry cnat taok so msny zombie  
[7:25] seokka: aight if u need us call us  
00As Jeonghan and Junhui were slashing through the endless hoards, Wonwoo and Soonyoung were, true to their words, rushing ahead past Seungcheol (and almost toppling him over at that). Seungcheol, left in the middle of two important things, decided to text Jihoon just in case he didn’t make it out of what he knew would be a bad idea.  
[7:27] CaptainCheol: jihoon baby i just wanted u to know i love u and if i die i hope u can find happiness somewhere else jagi  
[7:28] CaptainCheol: i know youre not awake but even if i die ill love you forever ok baby 

As the last message was sent, though not read, Seungcheol put down the bags he had been holding, including the one on his back, and took out the heavy bracelets he had been carrying around that he got from the jewelry section in the department store, figuring that they would make a good diversion. Taking a deep breath, Seungcheol tugged them on and began clanging them as loud as possible. To his delight and Jeonghan and Junhui’s surprise, the plan they had dubbed “stupid” and “space taking” worked, as the zombies turned their attention towards the louder noise. Only a few, two or three that had been focused and actually relatively close stayed behind- the others, Jeonghan counted about twenty, left to see what the noise was about. 

And it was as if time moved in slow motion, Junhui observed, as if he had left his body with how after they had killed the few undead around them, the zombies moved toward Seungcheol. With how it looked like Soonyoung was running in slow motion toward their leader, killing the zombies that had gathered around him. With how Junhui couldn’t hear anything as he watched Wonwoo light a bottle on fire- was that a molotov cocktail?- yelling at Seungcheol and Soonyoung to “Get down hyungs!”, before waiting a few minutes for them to clear out, as they fought their way down the escalator, and following himself before throwing it at the top of the escalator. Without hearing his yell of “Run!”, both Junhui and Jeonghan did so, toward the entrance (which was surprisingly not where most of the zombies were coming from- another thing that they had apparently gotten wrong about the apocalypse).

“Seokmin!” Wonwoo yelled, honestly surprised he wasn’t out of breath. Just something else to thank all the years of vocal training for. Seokmin understood, more or less, catching a glimpse of Wonwoo’s appearance and the glimmer of a flame in the mall. Seungcheol was already climbing into the first van, and with the adrenaline rush danger had given him, Wonwoo wouldn’t notice the open gash in his left leg until Seokmin pointed it out later.  
Meanwhile, as Seungcheol and Seokmin began pulling away from the entrance, Junhui and his passengers, Minghao, Soonyoung and Seungkwan were still stuck. “What’s wrong?” Seungkwan asked as Soonyoung began digging in one of the bags that they had recently filled. 

As Jun responded, Soonyoung finally succeeded in pulling what looked like a pistol in Seungkwan’s eyes; though he wasn’t sure he had ever seen any type of gun outside of a movie. Surprisingly quickly, though it came to Seungkwan’s mind that Soonyoung was a quick learner, so maybe less than ‘surprisingly’, Soonyoung figured out how to fire the thing and began doing so, only actually hitting about every fifth zombie that he tried to. Which, Seungkwan supposed, was about the correct amount for someone who had never fired a gun in his lifetime, even better perhaps because Seungkwan knew if it was him he would only hit every tenth or some much worse fraction. Suddenly, Junhui hit the dashboard surprisingly loud. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why- The van hadn’t started, even after five continuous minutes of Junhui’s effort. “Ta ma de!” he shouted in frustration, and though Seungkwan didn’t speak an ounce of Mandarin, he knew it was probably a curse word.

“Fuck it.” Soonyoung raised his eyebrow, wiping the sweat from his brow and looking to the left of himself, where Junhui was previously seated. “Soonyoung, you know how to drive, right?” Soonyoung nodded, and before he could react past that Junhui was climbing into the back of the van and grabbing the five or six pistols that Soonyoung had dropped to the ground after there were no more bullets left. He figured that, with as little time as they had, it was the best course of action. So sue him, Soonyoung mused to no one in particular. Quickly, in one fluid motion, Junhui jumped out of the car, his kitchen knife in hand as he slashed through the nearest zombies, seemingly headed in the direction of the mall. As Soonyoung studied the direction, he realized that people had been there before the twelve boys had arrived- their corpses had just been dragged off by the undead. He could see half of a body, most of it now just a rotting carcass, next to what looked like what he imagined machine guns were, and realized that that was indeed where Junhui was headed. Remembering Junhui’s orders, Soonyoung quickly climbed into the driver’s seat and began revving the engine. 

Around this time, it was clear he wouldn’t make it. Minghao and Seungkwan watched wordlessly as the wave of zombies so engulfed Junhui that they couldn’t see him, could only hear his terrified shouts and screams. Minghao’s mouth was dry as he numbly watched Seungkwan shut the van’s door, drier as the former moved at a snail’s pace toward the windows. In hindsight, what little of his mind there is left isn’t exactly sure what compelled him to watch his lover being torn to shreds, but in that moment, luckily enough for Minghao’s sanity, the car sparked to life, and Soonyoung sped away to the screeching sobs of Minghao. 

What Minghao couldn’t see, however, staring out the back window instead of at the other two boys in the car, was the teary eyes and red faces. The first actual death, if you didn’t count Joshua, in only four hours. They hadn’t been able to last four goddamn hours without two fucking deaths, Soonyoung thought, gritting his teeth and willing himself not to hit the steering wheel, lest something go awry. He glanced back to see how the others were handling; Minghao was still looking intently at the mall, however far away they got from it, and Seungkwan had his phone out.

(The conversation between Seungkwan and Jihoon, retrieved with the given permission of both parties)  
[8:14] seungqueen: JIHOON HYUNG  
[8:14] seungqueen: FUDKC  
[8:15] seungqueen: JUNS DEASD HE S DEAD THYE ZOMBIES ATE HIM FUCK MINGHAOS FREAKING OUT  
[8:17] jihoon: shit really  
[8:17] seungqueen: woudl i joke about this hyung  
[8:18] jihoon: okay youre right i just  
[8:20] jihoon: fuck  
[8:21] jihoon: can you just  
[8:23] jihoon: idk just calm minghao down?? Seungcheol said well be driving for a while bc the place he has in mind is kinda far away  
[8:24] seungqueen: ok ill try but it better not be too far i cant calm anyone for shit hyung and im not even that close to minghao  
[8:25] jihoon: seungcheol says itll only be about half an hour. Can u handle that or?  
[8:25] seungkwan: yeah i should be fine. Idk if i can even talk to him thou hes not responding?? Hyung do u think he has ptsd or something  
[8:26] jihoon: fuck.i dont know. just. Dont give him anything sharp and let him lie down and sleep a little. While youre at it, take a break yourself. U deserve it  
[8:26] seungkwan: talking to yourself there hyung?  
[8:27] jihoon: …  
[8:27] jihoon: go to sleep


	2. not really chapter 2

hi!!! just popping in real quick to tell you guys that this fic will get rewritten very soon!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing the second chapter right now, actually.


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